Not for us but...

I never thought that I would be so excited for another family. Someone from our agency announced their referral yesterday. They had been waiting almost exactly 24 months!! They had asked for either gender 0-4 years old and rec'd the referral for a little girl born in July. She's absolutely gorgeous with a head full of thick hair. I wish that they had a blog so you could all see, but they don't. I swear I shed some tears for them, they've waited so long. So now that means we take one step forward...wooohooo!! Only two familes ahead of us for our agency. It seems that referrals are beginning to trickle in too. A family from another agency rec'd their referral I think about a month ago. Bring it on....I hope this means that things will begin to pick up referral wise.

New Header

Isn't the new header the cutest!! I couldn't go without THANKING Sarah, from Journey to Hannah Claire, for the nicest gift of a new header. She just whipped it out last night without a problem. I love the new colors. And just in case you're wondering Sarah is just waiting for that phone call about Hannah, which by the way should be coming very soon!!

I want...

* to talk about something other then adoption
* to stop obsessing about time lines
* to stop waiting
* to have an answer, when someone asks "what's going on with the adoption"
* to know when our child will be home
* a "paper pregnancy" that parallels a real time pregnancy
* to stop putting our lives on hold
* to feel free to spend money instead of saving for an adoption that is taking forever
* to feel secure that this will really happen

I HAVE...
* hope that one day I will no longer talk about adoption, but our child
* knowledge that I am not alone
*to continue to wait
*no real answers to "what's going on with the adoption"
*no understanding of when he will be home, BUT THAT he will one day come home
*a "paper pregnancy" of two elephants(did I just compare myself to elephants?)
*to hold on just a little bit longer....or more, but we will
*money in the bank and that's always good, adoption or not

*faith!!

I171h refile..

Just wanted to let you all know that we were able get the extension on our I171h for FREE!! There have been inconsistencies with immigration offices all over. The discrepancy was centered around whether or not families rec'd their original I171h on the lower fee. Some offices were saying that if you paid the old fee then you weren't able to get the free extension; that the free extension was only if you paid the new higher fee. Our agency told us that with the cover letter we had to request the "one time, free extension of our I171H" So that's what we did. We had to fill out a new application, send in all the copies of everything of past, but we did NOT include any money and hoped that our office would allow it. And today we rec'd our new I171h FREE!!! Yay!! Finally something worked out for us. Just wanted to let everyone know because I know that there are many families in the same situation as we are. Have a great weekend!

Oh, but immigration took away one child. We had approval for two children, just in case, even though our homestudy was only for one child. Our agency even told me before that immigration usually doesn't allow a difference. So we again asked for approval for 2 children, but they only gave us approval for one. Oh well

A good omen?

Well here we are again friends. But now we're at 19 months. Remember how I said that I wouldn't make it this long. Remember how I said that I didn't think I could do deal with this long of a wait. Well I'm dealin'.

Not to say that we're dealing with it well, but we're dealing.

The good news is that there is some communication from Cathwel with another family from our agency. It's not a referral yet(although I think it may be coming soon for them) It is communication which means we know that Cathwel really is out there and they do know that there are families waiting!!

Other odd happenings in our little abode. We've had this fish tank for about 4 years now. Big, fierce, hugely ignored. Fish disappear. We have African cichlids which are pretty aggressive and have been know to cut out the competition in the tank. We were down to about four fish, two of them cichlids. I'm sitting on the couch today and I notice something very small wiggling away out of the corner of my eye. I'm thinking to myself what varmint go into the tank. I mosey on over and it's not varmint, it's baby fish. Where did they come from? Okay so I know where they come from, but the other weird thing is that the other "half" of an obviously breeding pair is no where to be found. I even looked behind the tank to see if she took the leap to lower ground. Nope not there....but anyways...even the fish are fertile and they get babies!!

So we're thinking that this is a good omen? I mean it's been four years and we've never had baby fishies before. And I know in some cultures, if you dream of fish it means a little one is on the way. If the fish are multiplying in your own home, does that count!???!